“The buzz of excitement upon receiving our shiny new biodigester at Holyport College was undeniable, but it quickly led to us finding more ways to reduce the college’s carbon emissions and food waste. We realised that we should be reducing waste before it even gets to the machine; it was very easy to forget that we shouldn’t be aiming to send food to the biodigester.
Building on this initiative, we have increased awareness of food waste – and what happens to food when it gets to landfill – among the students. We have increased the appearance of one of our own social enterprises, Seasonal Surplus from termly to monthly. When the dynamic duo of Raj and Dean visit the school, they bring kilos of what would be wasted food to the college and provide a healthy, nutritious and sustainable lunch. The staff and students alike are always amazed at the quality of the food that would have been wasted.
Raj also follows up this carbon-saving lunch with a seminar about food waste and what to put on your plate. This helps to make the students more mindful of what and how much they are putting on their plate, and to show they can stop wasting food at the first step of this process. The operations teams have been coming up with ways to make dishes from peelings and vegetables trimmings so that we are also preventing these from being wasted too.
We cannot deny the incredible piece of equipment that is the biodigester, and how it helps further our commitment to drastically reducing what we are sending to landfill. It is also so helpful with biodegradable disposables. During hospitality events, Holyport uses products such as Palm plates and bowls, which are made out of palm leaves. These too can go in the biodigester, saving all those that can’t be reused from going in the bin.
In addition to this, the by-product from the biodigester can be made into bricks for the college to sell. We are currently using all of the grit to fertilise the land, and have plans to create a kitchen vegetable garden. This will tie in with the Thomas Franks food education programme that we provide for their students. Plus, it also helps keep the grass healthy for their on-site chickens and goats.”
– Client at Holyport College